


Nowhere To Run

by LamiaHypnosia



Series: Dies Irae [8]
Category: The Outer Worlds (Video Game)
Genre: Comfort Sex, Drama, Drinking, Drinking to Cope, Gen, No Strings Attached, Reminiscing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-23
Updated: 2020-12-23
Packaged: 2021-03-10 22:35:39
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,400
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28274691
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LamiaHypnosia/pseuds/LamiaHypnosia
Summary: The four fugitives spend what may be their last days aboard the stolen UDL ship.  Vicar Max and Kat make the most of their time with a little no strings attached but Max is contemplating the emptiness of his life.
Relationships: Maximillian DeSoto/Original Female Character(s)
Series: Dies Irae [8]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2001835
Comments: 3
Kudos: 3





	Nowhere To Run

When Max returned to the quarters Kathryn was nowhere to be found. Just as well. Keep it casual. Though perhaps with luck tonight she might come to him again. Max didn’t believe in luck, though. Or as a man of the cloth he didn’t, should not trust random chance. 

He thought of the blue book in his belongings, having almost given up hope on finding the answers within its pages. Now he was in it, now an outlaw on the run from the Board. Even with Welles alive, even with his notes and knowledge what would become of them all?

Max lay on his bed. Then he heard voices, indistinct at first. As they grew closer he recognized Kathryn’s laugh and heard Welles say with a wistful note “You laugh just like your mother.”

A long pause. Kathryn replied “I miss her.”

“So do I. But at least now we can miss her together.”

Though he and his parents had never been that close, Max felt a pang of envy. Also a bit of melancholy. Now here at the end of all things at least father and daughter were reunited. Maybe it was not to be for long. The universe might provide a correction by way of retaliation from the Board. 

Max thought of Kathryn, the rage burning in her eyes. Sure she wasn’t the only one wronged by the Board but they’d robbed her of everything she was. There was pity in his heart for her. So maybe that was why he gave in and lay with her, distracting her mind even for a while. No words could calm her, only base needs reached her. 

So he pity fucked her? No that wasn’t it. The earlier events played in his head. Her moans, her breath in his ear, her fingernails digging into his flesh. Before he knew it Max was feeling himself getting hard again but he ignored it. 

Hawthorne had paid for his crimes but the future of Halcyon was uncertain. For a long time Max lay there and pondered the inevitable. The infinite. Maximilian DeSoto, why are you here? 

I’m here to reinforce the Plan. To correct it, to be fate’s hand. 

But what if you are not? What if you are an instrument to something else? Did you really do what you did to save Halcyon? Maybe it is destined to fade.

Perhaps it is. But I will not sit idly by when there is something I can do.

Welles has a formula but you have no plan. 

Ah, but fortune favors the bold. We’ve been to Tartarus and back, escaped the Board’s clutches and slew their most powerful lackeys. We will think of something. 

That night Kathryn did come to him again. She said nothing. She didn’t need to. Every time they were completely alone and certain they would not be interrupted they went for it. Every night was Kat, enveloped by Kat, wall to wall Kat.

Nyoka broke into the liquor storage and shared it with everyone. Kat spent every waking moment with her father but every night she was with Max. Max spent every night drunk on whiskey and Kathryn.

She did everything with him that was possible except a few things that required specialized equipment. They found oil based lubricant and put it to good use but only sparingly. Definitely one of his more adventurous partners.Plus she did that thing where she could make herself tighter. 

Law. 

Soon Max felt like an animal. Or an object. Once after they were both sated and she was preparing to leave he said “Why not stay a while?”

“Why?” Kat asked, tugging her clothes into place. 

“Because it might be nice to talk afterwards. Like we are humans and not rutting canids.”

She shook her head and laughed lightly. “You better not be falling in love, preacher.”

Max sat up giving her look for look. He smirked at her, for he knew Kat’s eyes were roaming and he had not dressed yet, not bothering to cover himself. “Don’t be so presumptuous, Ms. Welles.”

Kathryn smiled at him, the first genuine smile she’d given Max. She sat back on the bed. “How long do you think we can shake off the Board?”

“The colony is not that large but it has infinite places to hide.” Max spoke as he got up and dressed. “So long as we do not continue to thwart their plans we may very well be left to our own devices.”

“We.” Kat echoed intrigued, crossing her legs negligently. She winced and Max felt satisfied. He knew she was tired, aching below from his rough conduct (with her express permission, of course.) “I’m still surprised you got mixed up in all this. So after this you’re not going back to OSI to be reassigned to some backwater corporate town. What’s even going to happen to you?”

“It almost sounds as though you care.” Max said teasingly.

“Just curious.” Kat replied and picked idly at her fingernails.

“I’m not sure what will befall Edgewater.”

“Do you care?”

Max chewed on that a moment. No he didn’t. Not really. But aloud he said “If what you say is true the workers there are destined for cryogenic hibernation.” He thought briefly of the Holcomb girl. “I’d prefer that not be my fate.”

“Aw, you don’t wanna be a handsome icicle?” Crawling across the bed Kat knelt behind Max, arms around his shoulders.

“Did I hear a compliment fall from those lips?”

“Don’t be modest.” Kat rose and circled around to face him. “Dad and I could use protection by an enthusiastically violent vicar.” Leaning over she kissed him. Really kissed him, not a preface to other things. Certainly he’d kissed her before but she was surprisingly gentle, bordering on chaste. It was sweet, actually. Max suddenly felt a touch of melancholy. Had the Plan allowed their paths to cross sooner he could have loved her. 

Someone behind them cleared their throat.

“Well isn’t this rich.” Nyoka slurred. “You can play tonsil tossball later, we have a huge problem. Come to the bridge.”

Max and Kat exchanged looks then followed Nyoka meekly to the bridge. Phineas was already there, fingers dug into the back of the captain’s seat.

“Dad, what’s wrong-” Kat then felt the warmth go out of her blood as she followed his gaze.

UDL gunships had them surrounded. The Charybdis cluster was in sight. But they’d never make it.

“Why haven’t they opened fire?” Nyoka wondered aloud. “What are they waiting for? Shit. Everyone have a last drink.” She sounded well ahead in her own last drink and passed a bottle of whiskey to Max, who held it tightly.

“Dad?” Kat laid a hand on his shoulder.

Kat looked about at the other’s faces. Nyoka was miserable, Max’s face was a blank slate. Yet in her father's hand were two items she hadn’t seen in decades. Paper flowers she’d made him as a child and a photograph. In it was himself as a much younger man, with dark curls and smooth features. His arms around a beautiful blonde woman and both of them held onto a young girl in a loving embrace. Whoever had captured the family in this moment possessed true talent. In all three faces one could read a deep love, trust, and happiness. 

Max saw the picture too and he felt his jaw go slack. In sadness too but also surprise. The young doctor was by no means ugly- he had a certain boyish charm and an earnest face that would endear any woman. And somehow with it he’d seduced a goddess. Nyoka had seen the photo of Kat’s mother and all she could manage to say was ‘wow.’ The woman had a face young men in classical literature went to war over and would have been plastered everywhere on beauty ads here in Halcyon. 

Kenna was her name and if status quo was the measurement here she was the lucky one, having snagged a landed genius. But even in this single captured moment Max could read the utter devotion. This was true love, not a marriage bought and defined by capital and social standing. Seeing the old doctor gaze at this photo with such loving sadness moved Max. 

“It’s all over.” Phineas said in a monotone. He clutched the photo to his chest as the monitor flickered to life.


End file.
